I've chosen Constantinople for my entry as well, with the wikipedia article (and image) as main inspiration.

This is an extremely open map, with gameplay elements from Supermax (many paths of attack), and maps such as King's Court (extra bonuses for holding commanders).

Since all mosques attacks mosques and churches attack churches, there's a lot of options in regard of who or what to attack. You aren't limited by physical borders, but rather by what a given territory will add to your bonus or remove from your enemy. I've often known who or what to attack in order to keep a certain player from gaining the upper hand, but been unable to do so because of restrictions in movement or other players obstructing in the way.With this set-up, nearly every bonus is under threat from several points, making it a slow developing map where it's hard to keep your bonus without protecting all your bonus territories (as opposed to defending a bottle-neck leading to those territories).

I believe this gameplay will yield interesting choices in terms of weighing whether to take bonuses for yourself and how to protect them, vs. the benefit of attacking an enemy and destroying his bonus. Both options will be available in many different forms every turn.

Regions (or bonus areas) are not separated by impassables, but rather by the machanics of the map, through the Region Commanders. You can go for a region with few churches / mosques and take the corresponding commander for a decent bonus, or you can go for a region with many of them, but will then have to contend with the difficulty of defending them.

I know this is controversial gameplay, or at least unusual, but I'm confident it will work quite nicely for 4-8 players. Less so for fewer players, but the large number of territories and free roaming should even out effects of a bad drop.

Ironically, my major concern is graphics; the size and proportions of the map. Some gates and perhaps a couple of the religious buildings might have to go, to fit it all nice and clearly.

Hmm.. i made no reference to size limits in the contest thread. Fair enough.

I think you'll need to do some revising to make the map feasible for a graphics artist... i just don't think all of these little details could be crammed into a map, supersize or not. I suppose when the graphics artists are allowed to pick and choose the maps to design, we'll see if there are any who can make it work.

Ok, we're reviewing gameplay mechanics to make sure everything is solid and valid with the current XML.

I have a few concerns that I need for you to address.

1) Do you have any starting neutrals? I feel that the Valens Cistern and the Hippodrome ought to have one starting neutral each so to prevent anyone from dropping the bonus. Given the commanders value I think they should be either starting neutrals or perhaps starting positions. Trevisana ought to start neutral as well. The hills should start neutral as well, as it is very easy to drop two of the same territory and get a bonus.

2) I do not understand "+1 per two forts or Palace with Notores" The two forts I get, and I think you ought to start those neutrals... but what is the Palace part mean. Does it tie in with holding forts?

Other than those bits, i think the bonuses seem fair and all and everything works. If you could post an updated version with numbers on the map to indicate where the neutrals are then this map is set to go into the graphics portion of the contest.

Actually, I can't put all the neutral numbers on it. There's simply no room around the center of the city (Hagia Sophia area). Probably some of the forts in the area will have to go. I've put them on where there was room for it. I figured it would be up to the mapmaker to make the thing fit in regards of clarity and restrictions on size.

As for the starting territories, I wrote:Starting territories: All Mosques, Churches, Gates & Ships.All neutrals start at 3, except commanders who start at 5.

In other words, all hills, the hippodrome, cisterns, forts, palaces and commanders start neutral. I actually did consider making the commanders the only starting territories, but I want the map to be more about seeing possibilities and taking advantage of them, than to have the first player go for the best bonus, the second player for the second best and so on. There might some merit to making Gates neutral as well, though, as commander Giustiniani could become a very powerful bonus to have right from the start, and in a game with unlimited reinforcement, he might be very well protected right from the get go.

As for "+1 per two forts or Palace with Notores", perhaps the confusion is due to my missing the ending 's' in Palace. The meaning is that you get +1 army for every fort and/or Palace you hold. Having 1 palace and 3 forts would earn you 2 armies.

I've updated the first post. Only the detailed view has the neutral numbers on it.